


Shifting Destination

by Eustacia Vye (eustaciavye)



Category: Push (2009)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-08
Updated: 2010-12-08
Packaged: 2017-10-13 14:12:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/138247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eustaciavye/pseuds/Eustacia%20Vye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was six years from the last time Nick had seen Cassie. This was the closest either had come to taking down Division, and they needed each other to make it work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shifting Destination

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thepsychicclam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thepsychicclam/gifts).



It was years before Nick saw her again, and he almost passed her by without realizing it. Nick had gotten caught up with a Watcher, a Mover and a Stitch after the debacle with Division, and Cassie had thought it was a horrible idea. She showed him pages upon pages of his deaths, tears in her eyes. "You can't do this," she had cried, throwing the book at him in frustration. "I won't let you!"

He left in the middle of the night. It was safer for her anyway. She was still a kid, and she should never have gotten involved in Division's shenanigans. It was a shame, because he had really liked her, and she had a quick mind. It was cruel of him, but Nick knew she was sharp enough to realize what leaving meant. It gave her a chance at a real life, and she could be whoever she wanted to be. Nick was heading down a path that inevitably would lead back to Division, and he didn't want her involved with that. The Watcher he worked with meant nothing to him, the Mover was teaching him how to use his skills and the Stitch helped to mop up the messes they inevitably left behind.

He had almost gotten caught; Cassie's sketchbook had been only too true, and it was only by the grace of those sketches that he was able to dodge death so many times. He wondered if perhaps she had Seen that, too. By showing him the book just before he left, he was bound to take it with him, if only out of curiosity. It had saved his life, and he almost wished he could thank her in person.

And now here she was.

"Cassie," Nick said, looking at her in surprise. She stopped in her tracks and smiled at him in recognition. She looked pretty much the same, if older, with a thick purple streak in her hair. It was that streak that allowed him to recognize her. "It's been a long time."

"Six years," Cassie told him with a nod. She looked entirely too self possessed and self confident; it suddenly reminded him of the smug looks she always used to shoot him whenever one of her drawings was proven right. Nick figured she must have Seen this meeting happen to take it so calmly. "You look good."

"Thanks. You look... great." He repressed the urge to look her up and down, because she had changed a lot in the past six years, and he felt like the same con artist on the run from Division. He gave her a charming smile and rubbed the back of his neck a little nervously. He wasn't sure if she was angry with him for leaving the way he did, though she looked happy enough to see him. Maybe she had forgotten. "You look great, Cassie. How are you?"

She gave him one of her classically sarcastic smiles and rolled her eyes at him as if she couldn't believe the lame lines coming out of his mouth. Nick hadn't realized he missed it as much as he did until he saw it. "Better than you, actually. I've been busy, yet I haven't been shot at or needed a Stitch to put me back together..."

"C'mon. I haven't been that bad off..."

"Because you have my sketchbook," she said with a knowing smile. She snorted and shook her head, telling him without words that he had been a perfect idiot for leaving her the way that he did. "The Watcher you've been hanging around isn't as good as me."

"Hey... Blake's a good guy. I've been training."

"And catching Division's notice again."

Nick shrugged, a rakish grin on his face. "What can I say? I'm a popular guy. I've been reeling them in."

"Picking them off one at a time won't stop them."

"I have a plan," Nick protested.

She laughed at him knowingly. "No, you don't."

He couldn't help but grin back. It felt just like old times again, as if they hadn't been apart for the past six years. "Okay, I don't. Plans just get us busted. No Shadow in the world could block us if I actually plan something."

"Maybe you just need a better Watcher."

"Like you?" Nick challenged.

Cassie's smile was mysterious and serene at the same time. "Exactly like me. Duck, by the way."

He didn't even ask why. He ducked, then looked around. Someone rushed out of a shop and a package would have knocked into Nick's head. He looked up at her amused smile. "Would that have seriously hurt me?" he asked, curious.

"Only your pride."

Nick stood and scowled at her smug tone. "So you know everything that's about to happen?"

Cassie shook her head, amusement slipping off her face. "No. That's a problem. I think they moved my mother under a Shadow. I can't See her anymore."

"I'm sorry."

"I came to see you to ask for a trade." She was all business now, and Nick missed her playful smile. "You help me get my mother back out, and I'll help you finish the job you're working on."

Nick managed not to scowl. "Blake recommended some guys after he had to go into hiding." He ignored Cassie's eye rolling. "They're utter idiots, and there's this research facility we were looking into. We took turns scouting the site but all we have is the delivery truck schedule."

 _"Bor_ -ring." Cassie threw a fake yawn his way and shook her head. "Your pet Watcher sucks."

Nick needed to get into the facility, and it wasn't working out. He had to admit she was right. "Division's trying to restart the R16 test protocol again."

Cassie's eyes were sharp, and she nodded at him. "I know. You need me to make it work. Besides, that's where they were holding my mother when I lost track of her."

It wasn't more than a second's consideration. "Partners again?" he asked, holding out his hand.

She flashed him a bright smile and shook his hand with childlike abandon. "Done."

***

The research facility that Nick was trying to break into was in Greece. A little money in the right directions meant that Greek authorities weren't too concerned with the comings and goings of the facility's teams. Nick had been working with a group of people that Blake had recommended; they had a wide network in the area and were willing to translate Greek. Raj was a competent enough Shadow, and he stayed with him whenever he needed to plan something without fear of being Seen.

"It's late," Raj said when Nick returned. He didn't seem terribly surprised to see Cassie. "Take the room. I'll be out here."

Nick was flustered, but Cassie only smiled and thanked him before dragging Nick into the apartment's only bedroom. "He thinks..."

"Yeah, I know. Be flattered," she told him cheekily. "Anyway, he'll probably leave you alone to think, and that's the important thing."

It was true, but Nick looked from the only bed to Cassie and back again. "Yeah. Okay. You take the bed, I'll take the floor."

"Don't be stupid, Nick," she told him, her voice clearly indicating that she thought he was being silly. "You look exhausted to start with, and I'm sure coming up with a plan is only going to make that worse. We can keep our hands to ourselves."

He hated that she was right, and sighed. "Cassie..."

"I'm not some little kid anymore," she said, an angry edge to her voice. "You might think you're doing me a favor, but you're not, okay?"

"Listen, I was only going to get you killed..."

"Shut up," Cassie said, shaking her head as she cut him off. "You're such an _idiot_ sometimes. Why do you think you can only keep people safe by leaving? No," she said, interrupting him when he would have opened his mouth to answer. "Never mind. I don't want to hear it. They're only excuses. I've been on my own forever. Did you really think you were helping?"

"I'm sorry," Nick said softly. "I really thought you were better off without me."

"God, how stupid can you be?" she cried, throwing up her hands in frustration. If she had a book, she would have tossed it at his head. "My sketches saved your life. There's a reason why it all worked out so well when we were in Hong Kong together."

"The Pop Girl..."

"Would've come after me anyway," Cassie said, rolling her eyes at him in exasperation. "Does being on your own work? Does it really? Or does working with other people get the job done?"

"It's different, okay? Everyone else I worked with doesn't give a shit if they live or die. They've got nothing left but trying to screw with Division. I don't want that to happen to you."

Cassie looked over at him with a pained expression, eyes shining with unshed tears. "I'm not any different, Nick. I never was. They took my mother from me and left me on the run. I can't be whatever you think normal is. That's not who I am. That's not who I'll ever be."

Nick blew out a breath. "Then why didn't you find me sooner?"

"You blew me off in every vision I had. This time you need me to make it work, so I knew if I smiled enough, you wouldn't throw me away." She looked away and then flopped down on the bed as if to go to sleep, her back to him.

Nick sat down heavily beside her and touched her shoulder gently. "I'm sorry, Cassie. Really and truly sorry."

"Yeah," she said, sounding as if she had started crying. "Me, too."

He stayed up as long as he could, flipping through her old sketchbook and trying to make his mind work around what little he knew about the facility and what needed to be done to blast it apart. Sometime after midnight he gave up and crawled into bed beside Cassie, who had been asleep for the prior two hours or so. He could only hope that he'd figure out a way in that wouldn't get them both killed.

***

"That's not going to work," Cassie said flatly, looking over at Nick from the window. She could See various ways this would all play out, but Nick always tended to react in ways that made Watching him give her a headache. It was better to just let things go and react to his reactions than try to plan her moves a dozen steps in advance.

Nick merely sighed and scrubbed at his jaw with the heel of his hand. "I know the supply schedule."

"But not how guarded they are _inside._ I'm Seeing maybe four different ways that plan will go forward, and none of them involve you walking away from it alive. There are at least three different checkpoints on the main level." Cassie grabbed her notebook and a pen and began sketching some of the layout that she had Seen as he had talked. She marked the checkpoints she was referring to and looked up at him. "The point is to get out alive, right? Then just storming in like that isn't going to work."

"Nico is a decent enough Bleeder that it might work."

"No, he's not," Cassie told him bluntly. "You want to get in there..."

"Yeah. They're starting the R16 production again," Nick said tightly. "I broke into one of the trucks leaving that place, and it had three dead bodies in it. So yeah, I want to get in there and shut it down."

Cassie nodded, starting to feel a little ill. She hadn't Seen that coming, and she remembered how hard it had been to get the R16 sample away from Division in the first place. She suppressed a shiver and looked at Nick. "Nico will get you killed. You need someone else."

"Do you know anyone, then?" he asked in frustration. Most of the people he knew that were skilled in offense weren't willing to touch this facility. He was working on his C list of contacts, since most of them didn't have sense enough to be afraid of getting caught.

Cassie shook her head as she thought, chewing on her lower lip. It seemed like all of her prior bravado was gone, leaving a scared twenty year old behind. "Not around here. Maybe if we were in Sweden. I've been out that way for a while. It was easier to stay away from Division there."

"So we're S.O.L.," he groused. He ran his hands through his hair in frustration. He couldn't _think._ His mind kept circling back to the dead bodies with black blood and his fear that someday he would find Cassie's body there. He had to put a stop to Division's research before that happened.

"You can think of something. I trust you."

Nick's face contorted slightly as he looked at her. "You probably shouldn't."

"I will always trust you. It might give me headaches to track you every moment of every day, but everything I See about you tells me one thing: I can trust you."

He shook his head, thinking of their conversation night before. "I'm just some guy that isn't good enough to do this." Even after all this time, he still wasn't entirely comfortable with the role of leader. Deep down, he still thought of himself as the kid that wasn't good enough to save his father from death.

"No. You're some guy that outsmarted Division plenty of times before. You just have to _think."_

Blowing out a breath, he started pacing. He seemed to think better while in motion, maybe because he was a Mover.

Killing the guards around the first floor didn't help matters at all, since there seemed to be more. He was convinced there were more layers to the facility than the three stories above ground, but there had been no way to check. No one coming in or out of the place could be made to talk about it, and no matter how many flunkies were eliminated, the facility somehow always had enough to keep running.

There had to be another way in. He couldn't go through the front door and he couldn't go in via the supply trucks. The only other ways would be to drop down from above or to go in via sewer entrances...

Cassie wrinkled her nose. "Of all the ways to break in, that's disgusting."

Nick turned around. "But how far do I get going in that way?" he asked.

With a sigh, Cassie turned her gaze inward and started to trace through the possibilities. It took a long time, and she found herself making the barest of outlines for the most likely outcomes. When she finally looked up into Nick's anxious face, she smiled. "That's the route that's going to work. We just need to refine it."

***

"The next time we do this? I'm not helping," Cassie complained as they walked through the sewer lines beneath the research facility. There were a handful of Movers, Bleeders, Stitches and lone Burner; Raj must have been a lot better than he let on, because no one seemed to notice a ragtag group of fifteen people breaking into the sewers.

"Almost there," Nick called out from where he was in the lead beside Raj. "Quiet, folks!" He waited until he was sure he had everyone's attention. "Okay. We've got two teams going in. Cassie's going to take you two," Nick pointed at a Mover and a Bleeder at this point, "to go looking for her mother. They keep her locked up, and we don't know too much more than that. She hasn't been heavily guarded in the past, so the three of you should be able to get her and get the hell out."

Cassie nodded and took a deep breath to settle her nerves. _Mom, we're finally getting you out!_ she thought, nearly bouncing on her feet. She hadn't seen her mother outside of visions since she was a child. The Bleeder cracked his knuckles and the Mover only nodded, bored. "All right. Let's go in and get her out."

Nick waited as the three of them went through the grate above and into sub basement level three. Beneath it were maintenance and generator floors, which tended to be automated in these kinds of places. None of Cassie's visions had any guards hiding in them.

He took a deep breath and looked over the rest of the group. They were waiting expectantly for his plan, and this was the part he hated. He hated those eyes staring at him, hated that they needed him to tell them what to do. _Time to suck it up,_ he thought, bracing himself.

"Once we get up through this grate, it's sub level three. We need to go up a flight, to sub level two. That's the research lab area according to the maps we have. I don't know where they've been doing their research, but I know they're using people like us to do it. They're killing us with these tests, so don't think they're going to just let us go in and fuck up their plans." Someone in the back laughed, a harsh sound in the tense atmosphere. "Basically, we destroy the labs, save who we can. If you see anything with R16 on it, destroy it. I don't care how, go to town."

The Burner grinned. "I get to show off, then?"

Some of the tension coiled in Nick's stomach eased. "Yeah. Show 'em what you can do."

"Excellent," he said, making a spark dance along his fingertips. "I haven't been able to play in a long time."

Nick started Moving the others up through the grate, hoping he exuded more confidence than he felt. "It's show time."

***

Cassie knew that Elizabeth wasn't heavily guarded. Division believed she was only conscious enough to whisper the dreams of what she Saw. They didn't want her clear headed enough to create more plans within plans than she had already placed into motion. Most of them had been put into place long before Cassie had even been born, and she suspected that Elizabeth wasn't nearly as sedated as she let Division believe.

At least, she hoped she wasn't.

The Mover tore the door right off of its hinges. The Bleeder was on point as Cassie and the Mover went in to get Elizabeth. It was hard to look at her in the flesh; somehow, Cassie's visions always had her looking healthier. Her mother was so thin, eyes half lidded and hair stringy from going unwashed for so long. She was in green scrubs that hung off her bony frame, lips moving absently as she recounted a dream that she had. Cassie moved to her side in an instant, her heart caught in her throat. She caught Elizabeth's hand tightly, afraid she was going to slip right through her fingers. Elizabeth didn't even react to her touch, and Cassie wanted to cry.

"Mom," she whispered, staring at Elizabeth intently. "It's _me._ It's Cassie."

Elizabeth swung her drugged eyes toward her daughter, and there wasn't even a flicker of recognition. "They took everyone away. Division burns to the ground."

"That's the plan, Mom," she whispered brokenly, suddenly feeling as though she needed more than a Mover and Bleeder to help her get Elizabeth out. She was so much worse than her visions had made her seem.

"Acceptable losses," Elizabeth whispered, eyes opening a fraction wider. "Close my eyes and lay me to sleep."

Cassie watched her mother's eyes close, and she felt panic begin to well up inside of her chest. "Mom. We're getting you out." She looked up at the Mover helplessly when her mother didn't move, her eyes closed and her lips moving again. She could see the Mover's hesitation; if she weren't upset on her mother's behalf, she might be freaked out by her mother's appearance, too. "They drugged her. There's no time to figure out how to reverse it. We'll just have to let it work its way out."

Reluctantly, the Mover helped her get Elizabeth up and out of bed. Though her mother hardly weighed anything anymore, Cassie would have staggered under her weight if the Mover wasn't with her. She had never caught his name, and now she felt strange for never having asked for it. Both their heads whipped around in a panic when they heard the Scream outside of the door.

Elizabeth's eyes shot open. "Raj miscalculated. Too far outside of his range. Only a twenty percent chance he would have done such a thing, and he did it, the fool. Now the balance is tipped."

"Fucking hell," the Mover said, grabbing hold of Elizabeth. "Best make feet."

Cassie didn't need to be told twice. Taking on more of Elizabeth's weight, she helped haul her mother out of the cell. The Mover needed his concentration on offense and defense, not keeping Elizabeth upright. She tried not to think about why the Bleeder was screaming, who might be caught in those deadly concussive blasts. She focused on winding her way back to the sewer entrance and getting Elizabeth off into a safe place. She shivered and tried not to feel like she was abandoning Nick.

***

Nick, for his part, did not feel terribly abandoned. He and the other Mover, Theodosio, held up the front lines on the R16 research sublevel. The three Stitches were in the rear, going through the cells containing the captives that were being tested on. There were a handful that weren't as bad off, and the Stitches could reverse the effects on those. Most of the captive Specials were too far gone for their skills. The R16 was well on its way to killing them, and some of the Stitches felt it was kinder to simply kill them, rather than let the R16 twist up their insides and cause an agonizing death. Somehow Division had managed to slow the process down so that it took longer for the R16 to kill the subjects they were testing. It took days instead of hours, but they still died.

There didn't seem to be guards around the labs. Nick had picked late hours on a weekend to come in to destroy the place, but instead of feeling reassured, he felt even more paranoid. It might mean fewer casualties from fewer staff members in the facility, but it still felt wrong somehow. It shouldn't have been this easy. Cassie would say he was borrowing trouble, that he shouldn't doubt his good luck and planning. He couldn't help it. Something felt off about this situation. This was too easy. This was a trap.

Not trusting the silence, Nick turned to look at Raj. He should have been in the center of the group moving through the research labs. He had stopped to look into the window of one lab, frowning at whatever he saw there. Nick went back to his side, ready to tug him back into line. Theodosio kept going, ripping doors off of hinges and leaving a mess in his wake for the others to carefully negotiate. If he didn't find a room with test subjects in it, he destroyed everything in it on principle.

"Raj, what the hell? We have to keep moving," Nick said, tugging on his arm.

"This place has to go down," Raj said, voice shaking. He turned to look at Nick. "I never believed you, you know. About this shit. I never believed you..." He noticed how far ahead Theodosio was getting. "Theo!"

He stepped out of Raj's range of Shadow abilities, ignoring Raj's warning. "Easy, Raj. No one's coming. We're good."

Theodosio turned the corner ahead of everyone else with confidence, waving off the concern. Nick and Raj heard shouting, then an alarm. Most ominous of all was the sound of a single bullet being fired.

"Time to move!" Nick called out. "Simon, make it hot in here!" he shouted to the Burner. He did what he could, Moving things around erratically to build up an obstacle course at the end of the hallway, and the Bleeders pitched in to keep the facility staff from coming at them, giving the Stitches time to drag the few surviving Specials that had been experimented on. One of them had curling blonde hair, and though she looking nothing like Cassie, he felt a stab of fear in his chest for her.

 _Hang on, Cassie,_ he thought, Moving more things at the incoming guards. _I'm going to get you out of this._

***

Cassie pulled her mother and the Mover into a room she knew would be empty. She couldn't drag her mother that much farther, and they were only halfway to the sewer entrance. She had been counting on the Mover's ability to Move her through the hall if she was too sedated to walk, as well as the distinct lack of guards. She hadn't come up with a plan B, but now she wished she had. They could hear more Screaming in the distance as well as the sharp reports of gunfire at relatively close range.

Cassie cringed when it fell silent.

The Mover cursed and looked at Elizabeth almost resentfully. This was supposed to be the easier of the two prongs of the attack, so the majority of the people had gone to the level above where the research was. With the screaming cut off so abruptly, it was only too easy to assume the worst. That left him alone as the only offensive player on this level.

"Tell me you See a way out of this," he hissed at Cassie.

 _He steps outside the door and tries to Move the heavy metal door at the armed guards. There is more backup coming, almost as if pouring down from higher levels. There is an entrance on the other side of this level, and more armed guards come in. The three of them leave the room, thinking it's safe, and they're caught in between both waves of guards. Most of them don't even hesitate before shooting._

"There's more coming," Cassie said abruptly, pulling herself out of the vision. It was never comfortable seeing her own death, but she had almost gotten used to that. She could push away the terror for a while. It was seeing her mother's murder that bothered her and made it difficult to concentrate. All she saw was her mother's blood pouring out of her, the glassy eyes staring up at Cassie. They were blank and dead, but Cassie found them to be accusing her of failing.

"Tell me there's a way out of here," the Mover whispered anxiously, looking at her. They could hear shouts through the door, and it didn't sound that far away.

 _One of the guards slides on the blood on the floor, crashing into one on his left. The one on the right overcompensates, and his finger was on the trigger instead of in the guard position. The Mover crashing out of the room startles him, so that guard pulls the trigger sharply in his surprise. Blood spurts from the wounds and a concussive blast flies outward..._

"I'm looking!" Cassie replied, shaking her head. No use to yell at him. She was just as terrified.

 _The Mover doesn't wait for Cassie, but yanks the door open. He rips it off its hinges with his power and throws it at the guards. There are more coming, but he throws a concussive blast at them and keeps running. The guards run past the door where Cassie and Elizabeth are hiding, not bothering to look. The Mover runs fast, throwing concussive blasts behind him at irregular intervals, just enough to keep the guards off balance, just enough to keep them from firing..._

"Go!" she said, giving his back a push. "Run for the sewer!"

The Mover left immediately, never once looking back to see if she and Elizabeth were following. Guards shouted as soon as they sighted him; it was only too clear that he didn't belong in the facility at all. He ripped the door off of its hinges with his ability, then threw it at the guards as hard as he could. Cassie could hear the sickening crack of bone and metal crashing into the wall. There were more guards coming, following the crashing sound and screams of pain. The Mover created concussive blast waves as he ran toward the sewer grate. The guards all ran past, following the obvious target, and Cassie could hear the irregular whistle of air breaking the speed of sound.

Cassie Saw him swing the grate around and smash it bodily into three of the closest guards before dropping down into the sewer and taking off at a dead run. He would be safe.

Now it was just getting herself and Elizabeth out.

***

"We're screwed," one of the Stitches gasped. Amy was pale and worn out, close to collapse. She had tried to save as many of the Specials as she could, even when one of the others had told her there was no point. She couldn't just kill people, it wasn't her thing, and she had no one to blame right now but herself. She had two with her that were probably better off dead; she didn't know how much brain function they had left. Maybe if the three Stitches were able to work together they could save these two, but Amy had to be honest with herself. She just wasn't good enough.

"No, we just need to head down," Nick told her, trying to keep calm. He looked around the motley group and realized they were missing more than just Theodosio. "Where's Despina?"

"I don't know," Mikhail said, shaking his head as he coughed. He probably wouldn't be able to Scream so well now. "I lost track of her in the fire."

"Dammit," Nick grumbled. They were down another Mover now. They were trapped at the end of the hallway; the lot of them could go down into the stairwell, but he wasn't sure how safe it would be now. "We need to know if guards are just on this level..."

"I'll go," Amy said quickly, and Mikhail took the sluggish Specials from her. She slipped through the door easily and ran down the stairs, freezing in place when she saw the guards with guns passing by the stairwell door. She could barely breathe due to her fear, but none seemed to be looking at the door. She closer to see what they were doing. She caught a flash of Cassie's Mover running, but no sign of the Bleeder, Cassie or someone that could have been Elizabeth.

"We have to assume the worst," Nick said sharply when she returned to tell him the news. He helped Mikhail give the two Specials back to Amy to support. He thumbed the door and nodded at Mikhail. "The guards on this level will be here soon enough. We have to get down. There's no point in staying here just to get caught."

"We're not all back yet..."

"They're coming or they're dead," Nick replied, voice tight. He didn't want to leave anyone behind, but at this point there was nothing else he could do. He cast his eyes across the remaining faces. They were still counting on him to lead. There was still a chance for these people to survive. "We'll clear the path to the sewers. Get out of there as far and as fast as you can. We'll bring the building down if we can."

Simon came at them at a dead run, a look of panic on his face. "Get moving!" he shouted. "I can't control how fast it's spreading!"

There was an explosion down the hall.

Everyone piled into the stairwell.

***

Cassie looked up as the room shook and she could hear the sound of an explosion. There hadn't been any other guards coming down the hallway or returning from the sewer entrance. Was she a horrible person for hoping none of them would ever return? She looked over at her mother, whose glassy eyes still didn't seem to take in her surroundings. "Mom, we have to get out of here."

"Too many to move," Elizabeth replied, swinging her eyes toward Cassie. She didn't seem to hear her daughter, too caught up in whatever she was Seeing. "No escape without sacrifices."

Chest frozen in fear, Cassie tugged on her mother's arm. It didn't break the vision, and Elizabeth's lips moved slowly, her voice too soft for Cassie to hear. She blinked back tears. They were useless here, and they had to run. "Come on," she told her mother firmly, hoping she sounded commanding enough to break through the vision. "We're moving."

"You won't make it with me there."

"No. We're all leaving here, Mom. We're going to make it."

There were too many variables at play, and the future was shifting faster than Cassie was able to track it. She stopped trying, and simply hauled her mother to her feet. Elizabeth swayed but seemed steady enough to walk. Cassie headed toward the sewers resolutely, unwilling to think of the worst case scenario. She had only just found her mother, and she wasn't going to lose her again.

She came to a junction in the halls and started to head toward the left. She could hear shouting up ahead, and wondered if those were the guards that had gone after the Mover. She was more than a little stunned to see the other half of their raiding party. The Bleeders had hit a few of the guards and the Movers were pulling weapons out of the guards' hands or slamming them backward into the wall. The Stitches were dragging people toward the sewer entrance, and the Burner was busy melting the door they had to have come from, making it impossible for anyone to come at them from behind.

Her heart tripped in her chest when she saw Nick, eyes sharp and jaws clenched tight. He had a large purple bruise on the side of his face, but otherwise seemed okay.

"We're going to be okay, Mom," Cassie told Elizabeth, pulling her toward the group.

"I See it..." Elizabeth whispered, pulling out of Cassie's grip. There was an edge of panic about her movements, and Cassie found her own desperation rising. "Wrong time, too slow, too rapid, spinning out..."

Cassie had to clamp down on the visions rising behind her eyes, cloudy things with smoke and blood and screaming. That was useless, not looking like anything other than five minutes ahead of their current situation.

"Stop it," Cassie told her, hearing her own panic. "It's going to be fine." She pulled at her mother, who was starting to twitch as if she was seizing. "Mom, we're going to be okay. You're going to be okay. We're together again. You'll see. It's going to be okay..." She had to believe that, even if her mother's eyes were wide as if Seeing something horrible. She had to believe that they would be fine, that they could get through this alive. That was the whole point, after all. She stayed around the edges, intending to join the Stitches. One of them could flush the drugs from her mother's system if she got close enough.

Elizabeth suddenly jerked hard in Cassie's arms, spinning around her in an elegant pirouette that seemed almost impossible for her to complete. Cassie opened her mouth to speak or cry out in surprise, and it turned into a scream of rage and pain when she saw the blood suddenly bloom across Elizabeth's chest. It was right where Cassie's head would have been if she was still dragging Elizabeth along.

"Run," Elizabeth whispered, falling to her knees and pulling Cassie down with her. It took her out of the line of fire as a Bleeder shattered the eardrums of the guard that had fired recklessly into the crowd. Elizabeth's eyes no longer looked glassy or agitated. If anything, she was smiling at Cassie now, alert and aware for the first time that Cassie had ever seen her.

"No," Cassie screamed, unable to see anything but her mother's face. This was every nightmare she'd ever had about her mother rolled into one blinding moment of pain. "No! No no no no no no, this isn't how it goes!" she screeched, reaching for Elizabeth. They were falling, but this couldn't be reality. This wasn't the way Cassie had Seen it. This couldn't be how it ended. This couldn't be how Elizabeth escaped from Division.

She seemed calm as she grasped Cassie's arm. "I love you, baby. Run and live."

She fell forward onto her face, and Cassie could hear herself screaming incoherently as if from a distance. The Burner hauled her out from underneath her mother and took off at a run for the sewer entrance, ignoring the way she flailed and tried to reach back for her mother.

Elizabeth wasn't moving. She wasn't moving and blood was starting to pool beneath her.

Cassie found herself still screaming as she was dragged along, and it wasn't until Nick swam into her line of vision that she was able to stop. He had an arm around her, telling her to run, but it didn't make any sense. Why did she have to run? What was left for her now, if her mother was dead?

There had never been a set plan to reconvene once the facility was broken into. There was smoke and screaming on the sub level as the survivors dropped down into the sewers, and Cassie realized that five members of Nick's team were gone. Seven new people in hospital gowns were there, and Cassie assumed that they were test subjects rescued from the research level. She didn't care anymore. She didn't care if R16 was gone or not, if their plan had worked or if the facility was truly in flames. She felt numb, unable to pay attention to what Nick was saying over her head. She closed her eyes and leaned against him, feeling close to collapse. All she could see behind her eyes was her mother's calm expression as she died, blood pooling all around her.

Cassie opened her eyes when Nick shook her. They were the last ones left in that part of the sewer. She didn't know where the others had gone, or what Nick told them. She looked up at him with large eyes, feeling empty. "Mom..."

"We've got to go," he said, but there was sympathy in his voice. He had seen Elizabeth's body, then. She didn't have to talk about it. It was just as well; her entire body seemed to freeze every time she thought of Elizabeth spinning around her to take the bullet. He dragged her through the dark tunnels, and she was thoroughly lost. She didn't think he knew where he was going, anyway. It was likely safer that way; Raj wasn't with them anymore.

"I'm c-c-cold," she stammered, unable to feel her fingers. She shivered helplessly, looking up at Nick. "What do I do now?"

They stopped where they were and Nick pulled her into his embrace. "I've got you," he whispered, holding onto her tightly. He sounded almost close to tears himself, and she looked up at him in confusion. "You're going to be okay, Cassie. You've got to be okay."

There was something in his voice that seemed to draw her out. Slowly, her shivering stopped. "Nick? Why did this have to happen?" she asked, lips quivering as she tried not to start crying in front of him.

"It must have been the only way," Nick said gently, brushing his fingers across her cheeks. She leaned into his touch, hearing his breath catch as her lips slid across his palm. "You know she loved you," he told her.

She pulled back to look at him, tears in her eyes. "Mom's dead. They killed her. What am I supposed to do now?"

Nick traced her cheek with his hand. "We'll still take them down. One lab after another if we have to. It's what she would have wanted, I'm sure of it. I'm with you, Cassie. You've got me as long as you want me."

Cassie clutched hold of his shirt in her hands and leaned into him. "I don't have anybody else. Before... I Saw her, at least. I was sure she Saw me, too. I could pretend we could See each other, I could pretend she was talking to me. Now..." She looked up at him with tears in her eyes. "I can't even have that."

"I'm sorry, Cassie," he told her in heartfelt tones. He knew exactly what she was feeling now, how she was blaming herself for what had happened, trying to figure out if there was anything more that she could have done. "You've got me," he said softly, looking at her so she could see he was being sincere. "I'll stay with you."

Her lips trembled as she nodded. She clutched him tighter when he moved to let go of her. "Don't, please, don't let go of me..."

Somehow it figured that their first kiss would be in a grungy sewer on the run from Division, stink rising all around them and her mother's blood on her shirt. It didn't matter anyway, because his mouth was warm and pliant against hers, lips opening and his arms sliding around her. She risked sliding her tongue into his mouth, and he accepted her with more ardor than she had thought he would.

When they separated, they stared at each other a long moment. "Oh," Nick said softly, almost dumbly. He had cared about her, had always felt a connection to her. Was this what it had all been leading to? "This changes things a little, I think."

"No, it doesn't," Cassie said stubbornly, unwilling to let go of his shirt.

"Only need one hotel room now," he told her, a smile breaking out on his face. "Assuming you meant that the way I think you did."

Cassie could feel a blush rise along her cheeks. "Are you okay with that?"

"I think so." He cupped her face in his hands and tenderly placed a kiss onto her forehead. "We'll get them all, Cassie. I promise you. We'll get even for everything they've done."

She nodded and slowly let go of his shirt. He caught her hand in his and squeezed tightly. She still ached for her mother, and she knew she would curl up into a ball and cry later, then fume, then try to figure out how best to blow Division apart. This was only one facility, and there would no doubt be more.

They took off in a random direction, minds blank. Whatever the future held, they would face it together.

The End


End file.
